10,000 Down: A Short Tale of American Prisoners of War Captured in the Philippine Islands During World War Ii

By Ralph C. Poness

The Americans displayed Supreme Sacrifice, Raw Courage, and Uncommon Valor. This book follows Ralph J. Poness's first book P.O. W. A Sailor's Story. The new book, 10,000 Down, A Short Tale of American Prisoners of War captured in the Philippine Islands during World War 11 details what happened to the Americans and her Philippine allies when they surrendered to the Japanese. They fought bravely, assiduously with inadequate World War I equipment, waiting for the arrival of fresh troops and modern equipment. These never came. Nevertheless, they managed to delay the Japanese timetable for conquest. To this point, every Western colony except Australia and New Zealand had already been conquered.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664170230

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 by Ralph C. Poness.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/19/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

827205

CONTENTS

Defeat And Dejection

References

DEFEAT AND DEJECTION

On May 5, 1942, ten thousand men laid down their arms, and I, in that vast multitude, knew dejection, defeat, and fear. Corregidor had fallen, and I was in the hands of the enemy. Thus began forty months of barbarism, hunger, and death in the prison camps of the Japanese Empire.

Five months before, I received my first taste of battle when the Japanese bombed the Cavite Navy Yard. I had volunteered to drive a truck, transferring ammunition to depots outside the yard. Their bombers struck while sixty other men and I were in the yard ammunition dump. For forty-five minutes, we huddled in the midst of eight-inch shells, torpedo warheads, mines, and TNT, listening to the thunder of these falling death instruments. We heard the static thud, thud, thud of our seemingly ineffective antiaircraft fire and the droning roar of enemy planes, anticipating that one direct hit that would send us into oblivion.

It never came.

At the end of the raid, I went out to look at the devastation. The ammunition dump, a major target, was the only installation that had survived the destruction. Fire and rescue parties battled the flames and rushed to the aid of the wounded. Explosions rocked the earth, and buildings disappeared into flames and smoke. Four thousand civilian yard employees, sailors, and Marines lay dead among the ruins. This was my introduction to World War II.

A few days later, the Japanese invaded the Lingayen Gulf, and our forces began the delaying action that was to lead through the jungles of Bataan and the fall of Corregidor. We evacuated Cavite. My truck, the last to leave, carried the demolition party that would destroy everything that could be of possible use to the enemy. To escape the strafing fire of Japanese dive-bombers, we were forced to leave the trucks, dive into nearby ditches, and then continue on Mariveles Bay, our new headquarters. We turned the trucks, now useless to us, over to the Army.

From that day on, I became an infantryman in a Navy uniform.

Day after day, Japanese bombers flew over with frightening regularity. Our signal station detected